The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was first held in 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas and is hosted by Van Cliburn Foundation. It was created by Fort Worth area teachers in honor of Van Cliburn, who had won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition four years prior with Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3.
The Van Cliburn Competition is held every four years (the year after the United States Presidential elections; thus, the next competitions will be held in 2013, 2017 and so forth). The winners and runners-up receive substantial cash prizes, plus concert tours at world-famous venues where they perform pieces of their choice. Previously held at Texas Christian University, the competition has been held at the Bass Performance Hall since 2001.
Read more about Van Cliburn International Piano Competition: Top Prize Winners, Criticism
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—Lawrence Sutton, British prizewinner in competition in Sunday Correspondent (London)